Back in January, during a Television Critic Association panel on his 10-hour television Showtime documentary “A Secret History of America,” Stone got started with this little ditty: “Hitler was an easy scapegoat.”

This weekend, he amped it up a notch. The controversial director complained to the London Sunday Times about "Jewish domination of the media,” and claimed that Hitler did more damage to Russia than he did to the Jews.

Stone, who is half-Jewish, told the Times: “There's a major lobby in the United States. They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has f---ed up United States foreign policy for years.”

"Beyond the ignorance he proves with his comments, his demonization of the Jewish people could be a sequel to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion," Edelstein told the Jerusalem Post. "When a man of Stone's stature says such things, it could lead to a new wave of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism, and it may even cause real harm to Jewish communities and individuals."

The American Jewish Committee blasted the director, too.

"By invoking this grotesque, toxic stereotype, Oliver Stone has outed himself as an anti-Semite," said AJC executive director David Harris said in a statement. "For all of Stone's progressive pretensions, his remark is no different from one of the drunken, Jew-hating rants of his fellow Hollywood celebrity, Mel Gibson."

"We are deeply offended," Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivor, said in another statement. "These are words of hate and a disgraceful evocation of anti-Semitism. Shame on Oliver Stone."

"Iran isn't necessarily the good guy," he said in the Times interview. "But we don't know the full story." Stone said U.S. policy toward Iran was "horrible." (In 2007, Ahmadinejad rejected a proposal by the Oscar-winning director to make a film about him, calling Stone part of the "Great Satan" — America.)

Stone also praised Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez — subject of his "South of the Border" documentary — as "a brave, blunt, earthy [man]."

In explaining the rise of Hitler, for example, textbooks and History Channel documentaries often don’t note that some American corporations funded the Nazis, Stone said.

“There’s a ethnocentricity to history in this country — an America-first aspect to it. History, by its very nature, tends to be nationalistic,” he said. “What I’m trying to do as an internationalist is to get beyond the American point of view and view history as an international effort.”

He also told U.K. journalists last January: "We can't judge people as only 'bad' or 'good'. [Hitler] is the product of a series of actions. It's cause and effect. People in America don't know the connection between WWI and WWII."

Stone is, of course, no stranger to controversy. At this point, his films — “J.F.K.,” “World Trade Center,” “W.,” “Natural Born Killers” et al — come prepackaged with made-for-cable news controversy. And his comments do, too, whether they are promoting a movie or not.

Last week, Stone told the British press he thinks Gibson — despite the steady leak of his vitriolic, racist rants — will work in Hollywood again.

"Everyone is supposed to have an opinion, but most directors don't work that way," Stone told The Sun when asked if directors will ever want to work with Gibson again. "Projects are developed slowly, and over the course of weeks, months, there will be projects, and I am sure many of them will want to have Mel Gibson in them."

Copyright 2012 by TheWrap.com

Video: Oliver Stone's Hitler remarks draw fire

Closed captioning of: Oliver Stone's Hitler remarks draw fire

>>>messages.
oliver stone
is trying to change one he sent out. he's apologizing today for controversial remarks he recently made to a british newspaper. let's get the scoop from todayshow.com courtney hazlett.
oliver stone
, a lot of people already don't like him.

>>he's already controversial to begin with and he was promoting his new film "
south of the border
" and give an interview to the "sunday times of london" that he made comments at worst could be considered anti- anti-sumettic. in the course of this interview,
oliver stone
said, i think we have his accht words. "hitler was a frankenstein, but there was also a dr. frankenste frankenstein. german industrialests, the americans and the british. he had a lot of support. hitler did far more damage to the russians than the
jewish people
." while
oliver stone
is now apologizing, he said that he made a "clumsy" analogy about the holocaust. i don't acall that an apology more than just justification. i didn't do a good job. i don't see how that works.
oliver stone
should not be on that
list of people
who can talk.

>>okay, move on.

>>exactly, moving on. yesterday there was news that
wyclef jean
could be running for haitian president. the deadline to enter, if you want to run as haitian president, is
august 7th
, i believe in haiti. he, obviously, very closely connected to haiti especially since the earthquake there and his foundation has been raising money for the country for years. is he doing it or isn't he? right now no announcement and he's very dedicated to the country and when there is an announcement, we'll make one.

>>would he even qualify to run? you have to live there five years.

>>i believe, i believe there are some issues with his qualifications and there are guidelines about it. but he was born right outside of port-au-prince, however, he did grow up in brooklyn.

>>that would be a heck of a story, president
wyclef jean
.

>>in other political news, politicians are continuing to argue about "
jersey shore
," yes.

>>they have nothing better to do?

>>chris christie
did not approve of "
jersey shore
." it did not perceiveinaseperceive new jerseyens in the proper light.

>>interesting comments from
governor paterson
.

>>interesting comments. finally, of course, the "
jersey shore
" cast has officially made it. they have rung the opening bell on
wall street
. look at that.

>>isn't this amazing?

>>there's snooki.

>>one of our viewers tweeted that when you were on vacation they wanted snooki to fill in for you.

>>they're a political dialogue and ringing the bell at the
stock exchange
. i'm at the point now where i don't even know how to make sense of it because it is nothing but a character that show. it's a fairly interpretation of the worst type of caricature.

>>i was walking down fifth avenue yesterday and i saw a boy whose hair was exactly like polly d. this kid walking with his parents. so, they made their --

>>stereotypes are there for a reason. these kids take it an extra step. however, it's really an amazing lesson. kudos to the producers for figuring that out early on.